Earlier this morning I finished reading “death and exile the ethnic cleansing of Ottoman Muslims 1821-1922”.
Written by Justin McCarthy, the book documents from a variety of sources the mass displacement and murder of Muslims from the Balkans and Caucasus and Crimea as well as western Turkey, during the 19th and 20th century nationalist uprisings against Ottoman rule as well as Russian invasions of Tatar and Circassian and Chechen and other Muslim majority regions, as well as the allied invasion of Turkey in World War One. Almost all of these actions were accompanied by ethnic cleansing of the local Turkish, Bosnian, Tatar, Circassian and other Muslim populations. Ethnic cleansing that entailed mass deportations, looting, rape, mass executions, torture, and humiliations. All meant to make the Muslim- as well as in many cases also Jewish- inhabitants of these lands to flee or die. The savagery in some places, in particular Bulgaria, reached the levels of what would later happen during the mass murder of Poles in Volhynia by Ukrainian nationalists during the Second World War- entire families packed into religious buildings (Muslims in mosques, Poles in churches) which were then set on fire, people being murdered with axes and knives, villages being surrounded and men disarmed prior to the massacres taking place, people literally being immobilized and then thrown onto straw to be immolated to death as human torches, children not being spared...
Between 1821 and 1922, some 5 - 5.5 million Muslims in Europe were murdered, and 5 million others made refugees.
This aspect of European history is unfortunately seldom mentioned or written about, and alhamdullilah I am glad that Justin McCarthy wrote this book.
While I appreciated (due to the distressing nature of what it describes I can’t use the word “enjoyed”) reading this book, it also definitely contained some blind spots. The author stated in the beginning that it’s scope is mostly on the suffering of Muslims since it has been ignored by most historians writing about that time. I can understand this.
However, he practices a double standard when he blames historians focusing on the Armenian genocide (which he seems to project instead as unintended deaths caused by a deportation policy) for not mentioning the background history- deadly and massive attacks on Muslims in Russian controlled lands by Armenian and Russian armed groups- yet then does the same thing when describing the murderous nature of the uprisings in Greece and Bulgaria and Serbia and Armenia among other parts.
He doesn’t mention that under Ottoman rule, Christians and Jews faced discrimination like not being able to ride horses (a big deal at a time when no one had cars) or carry weapons, and a legal system that often benefited Muslims over non-Muslims during criminal trials. Discrimination like this, compounded with a weak system in which local officials who were often not monitored or out of control of Istanbul, often exploitatively overtaxed and abused Muslims and non-Muslims at will; surely gave fire to the nationalist movements. None of this is justification for what was done by the guerrillas, just like the abuses that some Ukrainians experienced at the hands of Poles prior to World War Two could in any way justify what was done in Volhynia (or Wolyn in Polish) at the hands of Ukrainian UPA partisans.
At the same time, it should be recognized that even at their worst and most oppressive- with the notable exceptions of the Hamidian massacres and during the First World War- Ottoman treatment of Christians under their control was nowhere as vicious as treatment of Muslims in the “liberated” territories. The Ottoman Empire presided over a multi religious society, even though it was unequal and at times persecution did take place. Churches and synagogues however stood near mosques, and Christians and Jews in many cases did prosper and some achieved even high government positions. In contrast, Greece and Bulgaria and Serbia were almost completely emptied of Muslims- most of whom lived there for hundreds of years alongside their Christian and Jewish neighbours and suffered from the same local state corruption and abuses as they did. Not only were mosques and often also synagogues destroyed, but entire Muslim neighbourhoods and cities and towns were burned down after the inhabitants were murdered or chased out- in many cases after being robbed. For the victims whose homes were torched and food and belongings were looted, this meant a horrible death by starvation and exposure to the elements.
McCarthys portrayal of the Armenian genocide as a series of deaths caused by deportations that were meant to move Armenians so they wouldn’t slaughter Muslims once Russian forces arrived- deaths that were wrong and tragic but not intended by the planners- is I think definitely false. The suffering and systematic murders of Armenians was documented not only by American and British missionaries- who were Islamophobic and hypocritically refused to recognize slaughter of Muslims by Armenian and Greek armed groups. They were also documented by German government employees- a government that was allied with the Ottoman Empire and had little sympathy for Armenians... as well as denounced by Arab Muslims including scholars in Egypt from Al Azhar who admirably admonished Muslims to try to save their Armenian neighbours from the deportations and massacres.
The book is well written and in my view an important one to read. It is very well referenced and obvious research was done by McCarthy. Like many books on this topic written by westerners who present the viewpoint of the non-Ottoman side, however, it is not free from bias.
Many thanks to my Muslim brothers who recommended and lent this book to me.
On a personal note, reading this book and other books about the history of the Balkans and Armenia from that time fills me with sadness because it shows how badly both Christians and Muslims messed up. Instead of following the directives of the Bible and Quran to treat ones neighbours with kindness and goodness, many Muslims and Christians have instead chosen to use axes and knives and ammunition against the other. Arrogance, savagery, and systematic campaigns of murder and ethnic cleansing resulted in millions of Muslims and Christians and Jews alike being murdered, or forced to leave their homes, or die of starvation and cold.
A great failure on everyone’s part.
May Allah SWT incline the hearts of us all towards justice and goodness. Such horrors should never happen again... and the horrors that are happening today need to end.
